As some people know, Neil has been in school working toward his degree by taking a wide range of classes online. What I've found is that these online programs are actually quite legitimate and require a lot of time and effort on the part of the student. For the most part, Neil has been doing a great job on his own... that is, until this semester, when he was forced to take math.
So, I've been putting those math skills that helped lead me to get a 730 on my math SATs to good use lately, although after looking at some of the geometry and word problems for the first time, I had the feeling that I'd be more likely to get a 370 if I had to take them now! However, after reading through the textbook (which Neil does not do, he goes right to the assignment, grrrr), it all came back to me. So, at least one to two nights a week, we spend about 2 hours working on his math homework and I help him prepare for his quizzes. Sometimes I'll do the assignment first and then we'll compare answers. To his credit, he always wants to do the homework on his own. I generally have pretty good patience with him, which usually starts to wane about an hour into each assignment.
It definitely give me a glimpse into what things will be like when Zachary goes to school and has homework assignments. Not only does Neil wait until they night that everything is due to start the assignment, doesn't actually read how to do the exercises, and often struggles to grasp the concepts, I still need to figure out how to help him learn and work on being more patient. It's much easier said than done!
Speaking of Zach, he's been in Florida all week. Before he left, he asked if it was snowing in Florida, obviously thinking back to our last trip to Boston when it snowed. So, Neil and I have had a relatively quiet week. Now I have to get back to dividing fractions and finding the area of a trapezoid. Now if I could just remember what the hell a trapezoid is...
Sad thing about this is my next class after this is Algebra...good lord! I never understood what a+b was I always thought the answer was c.
Posted by: Menky | March 12, 2007 at 03:08 PM
You have a math teacher at your disposal any time you boys need help! ;)
-Andy
Posted by: Andy | March 20, 2007 at 02:21 PM